The Truckster and two Boys

THE CHASE

Okay so, One Time Ago…

When me and my twin brother Todd and older brother Jody were about 9 &10 Our father worked for Cushman Golf Cart company in San Leandro, California and we got to help with transporting and servicing 3 and 4 wheeled gas and electric motorized golf carts.  We occasionally went on trips to prestigious and well known Golf courses throughout California, such as Pebble beach to deliver a semi truck load of Golf Carts for tournaments.  Our father would brag about how he taught us boys how to drive in a 1957 Chevy station wagon three speed on the column at the age of 7 & 8.

We learned how to drive in a car that had a clutch and manual transmission and one time when I hopped into a car with an automatic transmission, I didn’t know what to do to get it to move?  One time our father let us race around a walnut tree orchard in Vacaville with a 1960 something Buick because he, my uncle, and their buddies were drunk and our father wanted to show off how well his boys could drive a car at the ripe age of 7?  I had a blast!  I was getting sideways and flinging dirt up in the air and everything!  I had trouble seeing over the dashboard but managed to keep from hitting the trees. More and more Dust was flying with each lap I made and then the car started sputtering and the engine quit and then I noticed white smoke coming out of the hood, so I pop it open and the carburetor is on fire.  Dad and his buddies were laughing and too far away to notice what was happening until the fire got bigger and then before one of the inebriated adults could stagger over with a fire extinguisher, I had it already put out with my quick thinking 7 year old brain. Yep I threw as many handfuls of dirt as fast as I could on that burning carburetor until it finally went out, much to the dismay of the car owner. Hey it worked?

So fast forward a year. We three boys are now veterans at driving anything with wheels and sometimes we would help unload the Golf carts from a double decker semi trailer.

Semi Trailer in background

It had this hydraulic lift gate that was very steep when positioned to the top deck at an angle all the way to the ground level. So once again when dad wasn’t around we found a way to make it more entertaining as well! Like coming down the ramp backwards as fast as we dared and then slamming on the brakes!  That 3 wheeled golf cart would stand almost straight up in the air!!  You had to see it? We were Pro’s I tell ya!

One time I accidently did it when my father was nearby and let’s just say that I didn’t do that for a long time afterwards. “Honest dad, I accidently slammed on the brakes!”

  But one of the funnest things we did that our father had his suspicion about but never caught us doing, was we got to RACE err drive the fleet of golf carts for our trusting father to other buildings and park them in neat little rows.  So after a few black rubber tire marking laps (inside the building) on our make shift race track around other strategically positioned carts, Me and Todd decided to venture outside with… the- TRUCKSTER!

  It’s a three wheeled vehicle and was used by Golf course maintenance personnel to maintain the turf and also by city meter maids back in the day. It’s like a truck but smaller hence the name Truckster. It had a 3 speed on the column with a clutch on the floor and only one seat barely big enough for our fathers, Big Butt. 

Hey? There's our father coming up a Richmond, CA. hill in one

Cushman moved from San leandro to San Ramon or Dublin around 1970? and this was all new territory for us two adventerous boys and we just had to explore!  So here's me and Todd both sitting on this one seat, driving the… Truckster.  I’m on the left and Todd’s on the right and it’s my turn driving while he waits patiently for his turn or so I thought. Heck to be honest, I don’t think it crossed my mind whatsoever while I drove around the parking lot. Well I guess he felt I was taking too long of a turn and sense we both didn’t have watches or any specific type of apparatus to keep track of time, Todd decided that it was time for his turn, and of course I knew it wasn’t his turn yet. I just knew.  He wasn’t buying.

Todd

Tom

A tug-of-war match ensued between the two of us with the one steering wheel. Todd was tugging in one direction and me the other, all the while hitting each other with our free hand. -Now I’m not an expert about twins but as far as being one I have some pretty good insight about these special amazing abilities we twins possess, like being able to perform a tug of war with the steering wheel with one hand and hitting each other with the other, and also dodging the vehicle parking stops that were everywhere. It takes a special skill in an ambidextrous sort of way that only twins can perform as we compensated for each other’s tugs on the wheel and hits to the shoulder masterfully maneuvering the Truckster to avoid obstacles. Which was getting us... well?  Nowhere… It was obvious that neither one of us was going to win the first round.

DING! Round two…

So there we were, fighting over the steering wheel, racing in between the parking stops, barely missing them as we passed each one within inches, just like in an action packed thriller movie. Thank God the parking lot was empty and you will soon understand why!

 I kept my foot on the throttle, maybe it was because he was trying to keep his foot on the brake!  Anyways we were moving at a good pace when all of a sudden I must have lapsed for a second or got out of sync with our telepathic abilities to read each other’s mind or maybe it was that last hit to my shoulder? That one hurt? Ya that was it, and it made me a millisecond slower with the same idea (I’m telling ya it’s a gift we twins have) anyways all of a sudden Todd decided to stop hitting me and tugs the steering wheel with both hands so hard that the TRUCKSTER veer’s sharply to the right and I fly out of the TRUCKSTER on the left and land on the ground, and did I mention that this TRUCKSTER is a three wheeler? Yep the back wheel runs over my legs and bumps over me.  My Brother is Scared that I’m seriously hurt so he jumps out of the moving vehicle, does a body roll and is up on his feet and running towards me within a half a second to see if I was alright. Bottom line is, no matter what, that’s the type of guy he is.

We both look at the Truckster at the same time and also we both realized at the same time that the TRUCKSTER is still going… …..yep straight towards a brick building!... I’m telling ya, it’s a gift we twins have, it’s pretty amazing stuff. I’m also real sure that we had the exact same thought at the exact same time, of how our father is going to beat us to a pulp if that TRUCKSTER SMASHES INTO THAT BRICK BUILDING!

SO I’m on the ground and in pain and I’m waving him off and yelling “GO! Get the TRUCKSTER!!!!  So Todd takes off running!  There is no way he’s going to catch it  The Truckster had about a 75 foot lead on him and was going about 10-15 miles per hour.  SHIT!  I said out loud.  While still on the ground and in pain, I’m watching and anticipating the collision in 10-9-8-7-6-…

(Cut to the chase)

So there’s my brother, bless his soul trying to chase it down.  I’m watching and waiting for the obvious outcome. Just then the front tire hits one of those parking cement stops and the front of the three wheeler goes into one of those jet airplane take off stances and wheelies for about 20 feet then lands with a big thud which jerks the wheel to the right and the vehicle turns and is going in another direction now. HOLY COW! I can’t believe my eyes,  talk about luck! With 5 seconds left before impact, THE TRUCKSTER turns away from the brick wall and my brother was able to head it off like linebackers do to running backs in a football game.  GOoooo TODDY!!  Todd jumped into that seat like a professional stunt man and stopped it from exiting the parking lot and into the street!  Todd drove back to the warehouse and I hid my limp when we went into our father’s office.  

I was alright after a few days. As a matter of fact I think I saw a beam of light shine down from the heavens that day just before the Truckster hit the Parking bumper. I guess we used up our quota of miracles for that month because a few weeks later, nothing stopped us from hitting and knocking down a stop sign next to the railroad tracks, but that’s another One Time Ago story.

in the Middle of a Horse race track/ Golf Course in Vallejo, CA.

Thank you for visiting and keep checking back for more true stories like this one!